Kendall Small, a former four star recruit is transferring from the U of O. He's a talented point guard that would fill a need after Alec Wintering graduates. The Pilots recruited him aggressively before he committed to the Ducks. The Pilots have not attracted quality transfers since the 1990's when they went to the NCAA tournament. It's time. I have a lot of confidence in Porter's assistants' ability to recruit. The naysayers claim UP can never recruit high quality players. We're about to find out. Go get him, Coach. http://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/index.ssf/2016/07/kendall_small_to_transfer_away.html#incart_river_mobile_home

The Wingman wrote: The naysayers claim UP can never recruit high quality players. We're about to find out. Go get him, Coach.

IMO there is a real chance Kendall Small could end up at UP.

A one time ESPN Top 60 recruit, Small listed UP as one of his five finalists (along with Gonzaga, Creighton, San Diego St., and Oregon) before he signed with UO. (Both Kendall and Kyle Small visited UP in the fall of 2014, as I recall, and soon after Kendall, class of 2015, inked with UO, UP offered brother Kyle, class of 2017).

Maybe more importantly, TP has said he wanted to have a scholarship (Russell's in this case) available in case an impact transfer becomes available. He's also mentioned his interest in picking up transfers from programs like UO and OSU as that has helped UP in the past. (I only recall OSU transfers Ross and Chatman).

So yes, in a number of ways the stars are aligned....but, as always, there are many variables at play here....we shall see.

DoubleDipper wrote:I guess Pilots fans should just remain positive and count on the recruiting prowess of Coach Cantu to come up with a "solution" by the end of August when classes begin.

That's from another thread, but I think it applies here.

When Kendall Small was a prep star in Southern California, Coach Cantu was the coach at USC who pursued him to play for the Trojans. Cantu eventually moved to UTEP two years before Small enrolled at UO, but the relationship was established....UP fans just have to hope that relationship was strong enough to now bring Small to UP....

The list that Rothstein tweeted only defines the current competition....IMO it does not mean it's the final five.

wrv wrote:Is it possible that once again we have been confused by another non-Oregonian, non-Portland person with Portland State—he wouldn’t be the first.

Not sure what to think, as it appears Kendall himself retweeted the original tweet without a UP/PSU correction.

On the surface, UP would seem to make more sense than PSU given his previous connection to the Pilots and current interest in at least two other WCC schools - on the other hand, his UC Riverside interest might indicate that he'd consider schools in the lower part of D1 (not that the Pilots have been much better in three of the last five years).

Dean Murdoch wrote:With Ferguson's commit it was fairly obvious he was never coming to UP, but it's official now - Small to Pacific. Good get for the Mighty Mouse.

I've been curious to see which of the four new WCC coaches would have the best immediate recruiting success. I would have bet on Sendak at Santa Clara. Stoudamire strikes the first blow. As far as I can tell, this is the highest-ranked recruit to end up anywhere in the WCC other than Provo or Spokane during this offseason.

p.s. The most creative recruiting move by any of the new WCC coaches might be Smith at USF convincing Frankie Ferrari to come back to play for the Dons. Ferarri played for Rex Walters as a freshman and then transferred to a JUCO. Now he's going back to the Hilltop:

Agree the biggest splash goes to Stoudamire at Pacific, but time will tell which school actually has the best new point guard....

Andre Ferguson may not have the stars to match Small, but he immediately makes the Pilots a better team.

Apparently aced out at Power 5 Texas Tech at the last minute when Tubby Smith and the Red Raiders decided to bring in a graduate transfer to play just one year at the point, Ferguson, an excellent student, may eventually turn out to be bigger steal this offseason.

DoubleDipper wrote:Apparently aced out at Power 5 Texas Tech at the last minute when Tubby Smith and the Red Raiders decided to bring in a graduate transfer to play just one year at the point, Ferguson, an excellent student, may eventually turn out to be bigger steal this offseason.

From the official release from the Pilots -

Ferguson was also being recruited by Texas Tech, South Florida and Missouri.

I had posted in the other thread that I was surprised a D1 recruit would go completely unranked on that NERR site as it's generally pretty comprehensive, but omissions happen. Like I said over there - very interesting.

DoubleDipper wrote:Apparently aced out at Power 5 Texas Tech at the last minute when Tubby Smith and the Red Raiders decided to bring in a graduate transfer to play just one year at the point, Ferguson, an excellent student, may eventually turn out to be bigger steal this offseason.

Tubby Smith is the coach at Memphis, having replaced Pastner, who went to Georgia Tech and hired Reveno.

Why would "an excellent student" who is also a D-I caliber point guard spend a year at a prep school? I thought basketball recruits generally went to prep schools if they needed to bolster their academic credentials in order to be admitted to a university.